Steaming prep + contest winner prep!

It's been a mess of scheduling issues and poor health, but maybe we can make the last Kickstarter stream finally happen! I remain not in the best of shape, and it's not looking like any good news on the heath front is coming any time soon, but I have medication set aside to cover a stream, so let's go! (Every stream I've done in the past year was also medicated, so this one isn't any different.) I hate owing people work, so I'll whittle it away whenever the possibility arises.

Anyway, here are some sketches from the upcoming stream, and something else thrown into the picture frame for my convenience. I took these photos with an iPhone in weak light, so they only clean up so well in Photoshop. Forgive me!

The Soren card was a possible sketch for an request night stream a long time ago, and it was resurrected for the last Kickstarter stream. I'm glad he gets the chance! There are a lot of great card sketches that never got made, and that's wrong! We must go through those sketches and give them justice!

The Bud card is for the costume contest winner. While his suggestion was my favorite, drawing the costume in action would be somewhat awkward for an out-of-context card. Thus, I drew a good Bud card with the costume. So WE know what it is, and why it's funny that he's eating that apple, but it's also just a nice-looking piece. As it's highly unlikely I'll have the time and strength to do a test stream for this, before the big main event stream, I'll be coloring this piece off-camera.

This is a piece I'm so excited about. It's going to be the cover of a binder that contains lots of my art! It's 8.5x11, though slightly smaller on the page than this cropped image. I left room for titles, which I won't be drawing on the piece, but can be added to the digital print file and then printed out.  As not all details of this one are in/approved yet, it's only in pencil.

This is for the artist edition book sketch. I drew a more elaborate scene, involving Ivy and Ms. Monster, but that would have been tough to fit in that space - especially since it'd be better on a wider, landscape layout. It should become *something* one day, though, because it was great!  This piece is Ms. Monster in front of her chalkboard, announcing some group projects.  (I'll add the chalk text to the board with white ink after I'm done.)

There's also an Ivy card I'll be prepping, but I didn't keep proper notes and now I don't remember which Ivy sketch was chosen. That'll be ID'd and drawn up soon.

Night of Sketches, Part 3

As this is part three, that means you should be scrolling down to see all the recent sketches and read a story about my house that probably doesn't interest you. Too bad. Do it.

Like all sketches from tonight, these are from someone's Rent-a-Chrispy's ideas. In a flattering twist, I was told he has too much Precocious art, so maybe he should collect it in a Precocious binder. Which would need cover art.  OK!  Most of these sketches are variations of the same idea: Autumn looking through the art binder and being adorable in the process.

The idea stemmed from a suggestion that Autumn be pulling a book down from a bookshelf.  I did attempt that for one sketch, and included a few more sketches that can have that bookshelf added into the background. The Ivydoll and Pingoball were added on a whim later. Autumn does have a fox-style doll on her bookshelf. It is NOT the Pingoball, as it was created before Pingoball was a thing, but it happens to have the same color shirt as the Pingoball by dumb coincidence... so maybe a retcon wouldn't hurt?

Next up is the book sketch! As Ms. Monster played a large role in the book's big stories, she was chosen to the be the featured character.  Since this is a commission time and not an artist edition sketch, it can be as simple or as complex as desired. Above is a smug Ms. Monster, standing in front a blackboard that will have some doomeriffic message on it. It's a simple look that fits nicely in the space provided.

If we want to get ambitious, though, a scene was proposed of a parent-teacher conference involving Ivy.  My first idea was to have Ms. Monster printout a long list of Autumn's misdeeds.  I like the sketch, but it would be a tight fit in the book. (It is doable, though.)

Trying to find a more vertical solution, I drew Ivy and Ms. Monster confronting Autumn.  Ivy is angry, while Ms. Monster has the smug tattletale look going on.

Finally, I roughed out some Ivy arc cards because Ivy is fun!  The one on top is the "we got sued by ANOTHER magician" look, and the bottom row has the "world's best mug (when full)".

Before my face decided that exploding was a thing it wanted to do, thus removing my ability to stream without heavy medication, we had talked about a Soren art card.  I couldn't find the sketch on the blog, and eventually figured out it was a sketch I drew during a stream and never scanned in. As luck would have it, I found what I *think* is what we'd talked about in the first old sketchbook I pulled out.  Here is Soren reading in front of a bookshelf.  Now that I think about it, I remember turning down requests to draw this card because I didn't know where to crop it, and worried that I wouldn't be able to capture the sitting look correctly on the first try.  (It's not good entertainment when the streaming artist has to erase and start over, especially when it's light pencils that aren't easy to see.) So, if this is indeed the card desired, I get a chance to solve those problems before I ink/color it live!

Overdue sketches

I'm only 12 hours late with these! These represent the last of the May commission project.

This should be my May 31st commission.  I started with Bette at the beach, I should end with Bette at the beach! Here, she is joined by Mitzy Bard, as they sunbathe after a tough school year.  Hmm, maybe I should replace their cooler with the beach ball from the first pic. Continuity!

It's getting warm out there, so Gren wanted his hyena character dressed as Jack Frost and enjoying ice cream.

And I guess I can't have a sketch post without more Wen sports poses.  This one was him in motion actually throwing the football. Unfortunately, those poses aren't that elegant or readable.  Also, I'm pretty sure I'm in some government database now, as I got these poses by watching a video of an eight-year-old girl throwing a football around - pausing and rewinding, pausing and rewinding, pausing and rewinding...

The heart attack piece

This one came into existence kicking and screaming. What you see here is actually attempt number three.  Even the scanner fought me, as it decided to pull that trick where every light yellow comes out as pale blue. I did my best to correct that, but I can only do so much.  The *actual* blue isn't nearly as choppy as the scan makes it out to be either. The whole piece is actually darker in real life, which makes it doubly frustrating that the scanner ate it anyway.  The aforementioned white ink technique was attempted on a sample page, but the ink came out too uneven to be useful.  I am artistically worn out.  Anyway, enjoy the second piece in the belly dancer series.

Good thing it's warm out...

...because I keep drawing Ms. Monster without much of a top.

Here is the line art for the next belly dancer watercolor.  My big question here is the accessories. The cloth danging from the top was incorporated from the source pic, but it can go. The bracelets were mostly me seeing it they'd work.  (The original had patterned forearm wraps, but I didn't think they'd translate well.) For colors, I was thinking of borrowing a similar color scheme from the other Ms. Monster piece I did today. (Should I post the May commissions on this blog too, or keep them on my FA?) I'd aim for a deeper blue on this one - and I'm debating trying out going over the blue fabric color with a white ink pen and adding some designs.  That could work, or it could backfire big time. Maybe I'll do a test on a scrap paper when I'm working.

The commission sketches begin!

Let's get this commissionathon started! For my May con commission promotion, I have requests so far. Since I can't go forward until I get approval, and the effort begins tomorrow, I'd best get these out there so the clients can review them!

First up is Jonathan's. He asked for Ms. Monster on vacation. I decided to have her playing with a beach ball. Above is the second sketch I made for her. The first was action, but the action had her arm coming across her body and obscuring... stuff. This time I drew her on the beach holding the ball, but felt it was a bit too static.

This is the one I like. It's an overhead angle of her playing with the ball. Maybe more challenging, but a good composition.  Through the joint miracles of iPhone and Twitter, I already got approval on this one. I know I said I wasn't doing this first come, first serve, but for the first of May, I think I'll slot in the only confirmed piece I have and let the rest work themselves out.

Jonas asked me to draw a commission with Dionne acting nice (for her).  I took this as her pretending to be nice while still being horrible.  Somehow that scene from Kill Bill popped into my head, where the nurse was actually assassin Elle Driver. It might not totally be appropriate for the idea, but I *had* to draw it.

This might be more in line with the theme.  Dionne selling cookies outside a weight loss center. I don't know how much is visible on the small sketch, but the sign has her continuously increasing her prices - while she happily counts her money.  I originally labeled them as girl scout cookies, but Jonas is from France and I dunno if the term has the same cultural impact there.

Ed actually sent me a drawing he had been working on, asking me to adapt it. It's his character painting Kaitlyn in her princess outfit.  The first attempt was copying his layout, with the main change being Kaitlyn looking annoyed. (While the painting could show her being happy and princessy!)

Since the first version didn't show up much of Ed's character, I moved the figures around a bit for the second try. I also scrunched them up to make this a vertical composition.  I should also note that I did this sketch without Ed's character sketch in front of me, so the markings aren't right.  No one freak out over it!

And that's the first wave. I'm going to post now because Blogger is throwing error messages at me and I'm scared it'll go down at any moment.

Dance for me!

While I don't have much time for commissions these days, I do still have a few obligations in my inbox. I want to be the best, so let's work on some today!

This project has a few of my ladies cast as belly dancers. I seem to recall the three being Bette, Mitzy and Deirdre... maybe I should have checked my email to confirm them before sketching? Eh, doesn't matter. I can swap some heads around if needed.


To start things out, I did searches for good belly dancing poses. The dresses can be finalized afterward. In this sketch of Mitzy, the dress from the photo would be practically impossible to convert to watercolor - but the pose was nice! By the way, forgive any shading discrepancies. They were not the priority during the sketching and, frankly, I haven't thought of how most of my cast would look with skimpy clothes on.

There's some dissonance going on in my head with my cartoony characters matched up with human poses and dimensions. I tried to "correct" the anatomy from correct human to way-off Precocious, but I definitely need to figure out how I will melt these two elements better.


I didn't think the pose would work out with cartoon anatomy, but it kinda does. I'd like to keep working with this idea.


Deirdre seems like a weird match for this hobby, so I wanted to make her pose a bit more unsure and less dynamic. I found a dress that was more conservative for her.

I've got a lot of work on this project if I want it come out looking grand. Getting the anatomy to look right with my undisciplined method of drawing is hard, and getting the dresses and veils to flow properly is a task as well. I hope to find some time during the next few weeks to keep sketching for this project, as well as the others in the queue.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It might not be the best in quality, but I decided to whip up a little image to honor this romantic day. There's an upside to everything, right? Enjoy!

Up to no good

Well, my inking plans for today stopped at one eighth of a strip so far (damn you, double-sized Sundays), but I did get some fun sketching done. Enjoy this classic scene of (insert adult here) discovering the destruction (insert child/children here) has created. Always a good time for all!

Act casual...

Today is an inking day. Inking is so... permanent! I'm making THE comic! If I screw up, well, sucks for me. Oh yes, and tension does up the chances of screwing up. I gotta relax.

So I took a break! Gotta fulfill my blogging duties anyway. Today's sketch is of another buttoned-up character, Ms. Monster. She dresses frumpy and boring for her class - a "how not to be seen" experiment - all in a sick effort to keep her professional and private lives separate. It's kinda stupid, really. (I should note here that I've stopped the flimsy parallels to link the sketch with the day's theme and I'm on to just talking character.) Anyway, the point is that Bette hates having her worlds collide. (Tiffany seeing both Bette and Ms. Monster is an unfortunate exception.) For Bette to show up to class in short sleeves, something has to go horribly wrong.

So I course I made two Sundays' worth of strips about it! You'll see 'em come June. Consider yourself teased.

An alternative to awkward teenagers

No, this isn't the intro to a Modest Proposal-type essay. (It totally should be, but isn't.) It's the sketch I planned to share instead of my teenager sketches. It is decidedly less interesting.

The big story here is that I drew IRISES in my cartoon eyes! It was a half-thinking impulse which resulted in me drawing eyes... and not knowing what to do with them. At first, I was leaning in the direction of drawing Tiffany (she gets cut from BOTH versions of the Friday blog. Burn!) but that plan went out the window when I absentmindedly drew a canine nose. Due to the subtle differences in my characters facial structures (I'm sure you remember that post from over a month ago) the nose placement limited me to one of my two collie characters. I went with Ms. Monster over Deirdre Linkletter because the face looked younger and thinner. It should be noted that, upon completion of this sketch, my next drawing ended up being a cute Deirdre who looked 10 years younger and 20 pounds lighter. I am not sharing that sketch, as this was not intentional but rather a result of me fucking up.

Anyway, it's a wonder to all that I managed to salvage such an ill-conceived venture and turn it into a minor texture study. Whoopee.

Aaaand, while we're covering uninteresting posts and my lack of discretion.... MUSIC UPDATE! I'm still fascinated by my random iTunes experiment. We have a new top and bottom song!

The new leader, reaching 8 plays before any other reached 7 and currently the only song at 9, is PJ Harvey's "A Place Called Home." It's another of my favorites, so I am pleased. PJ Harvey is usually more rough and funky, making songs that totally rock as Sophie Muller videos, but this song is rather beautiful and harmonious. It's the type of song that deserves a Michel Gondry video. Unfortunately Sophie Muller went ahead and did this one too, so the video sucked. As the title of the song indicates, she's musing that after a period of loneliness and hardship, "One day I know we'll find a place of hope. Just hold onto me... One day there'll be a place for us."

The new loser song is Natalie Merchant's "King of May," which sat at the one play mark with the former champ, Wilco's "I am Trying to Break Your Heart," for a long time. Last night Wilco got the second play, leaving "King of May" at the bottom. What's "King of May" about? It's a song about giving a dying old man one last hurrah before he passes. Even though he's probably gone into dementia and is just a shell of his former self, you should all "raise your voices up; lift your loving cups to his long life."

A lot of meaning to those random results...

...so what does it say that Alanis Morissette's "That I Would be Good" keeps starting just as I move to close iTunes?

Parting with such sweet sorrows

I suppose I can call this latest completed sketchbook the stress book. A heaping bowl of crazy was poured onto these pages. With hope, none of it shows. I want stress to embolden me and reinforce my desire for success, not make me draw sad character over and over.

This sketchbook took a little over two months to complete, which is a good pace for me. One-month books mean I'm spending all my time sketching and not being productive. Three-month books may indicate I am not working hard enough. Two is just right. (I do hope to become a three-monther when I grow more productive.)



First up is the typical one actual art sketch. I believe the night I sat down and did this sketch I had a specific goal in mind for drawing. This was definitely not the goal. Oh well.



Before I did the color Bette sketches, I had played with her in the sketchbook. The first colored pencil was based off of one of these sketches. The right sketch is me starting to think about the panel in which she delvers her first line. It's a good sign that I feel I'm that close to getting the comic officially launched that I am starting to think about panel treatments.



In every sketchbook, sometimes you draw a character but the sketch doesn't fit in the current post. These are the best-of almost-posted sketches of the post-Thanksgiving drawing session.



These three were tinier sketches I thought I could salvage. The Jacob and Autumn were rejects from the "awkward moments" post sketch. Tiffany was a few pages before, which explains why her treatment is noticeably different.

I had more sketches I thought I could share, but I tossed all those that would not fit in a group shot. That's the dedication I have to you all. Oh well! This sketchbook is now officially at rest and I'm on to the next one!

Baby, I've got an eight-inch Monster!

You know you want it.

After drawing a tiny Ms. Monster, idle sketching tonight turned into one of the biggest Precocious figures I've done. Her coloring is still improbable, she's too tall and her work clothes are bland even for intentional blandness - but, as I had no intention of drawing her or working in colored pencil at all tonight, I will happily take what I get!

Lessons learned via aftermath

I decided to try another colored pencil sketch and the character of the day was the dreaded teacher, Bette Monster! Mwa ha ha!

This a rare casual shot. As we all know, seeing one's teacher out in the wild is a frightening experience. The whole authoritarian mystique is destroyed. Bette sometimes shows up at the Et house to hang out. The conflict has clearly left her psyche shattered.

In a class of genius psychopaths, Bette has learned the best she can do is let the kids go and try to nudge them in the right direction. Direct opposition results in war wounds. Using their personalities against them: Sadistically satisfying!

This was the first attempt at coloring, and only when I finished the drawing did I look up what collies actually look like. I have the coloring wrong! My god, if we can't trust walking, talking, clothed cartoon animals to have natural coloring... what can we believe in?

Just as I simplified my calico (Tiffany) and tabby (Sky), I'm going to have to let my inappropriate collie coloring to stand. That, or I can just not do my typical hatching in drawings to indicate shading in Bette. I guess we'll find out when I get to the comics.

Meet Ze Monsta

An alternate title could be "Hot for Teacher" - but why reference Van Halen over the lovely PJ Harvey?

This comely lass is Bette Monster, the educator for my little hellions.

Like the rest of my crew, she is a victim of my love for silly names. Her first name is a reference to the Precocious class' 13 kids first and last names all starting with a different letter of the alphabet. The surname Monster plays in wonderfully with the role of an authority figure. When you're literally under the command of a Monster, what are you to do? There's also the connotation that monsters are hideous beings, while Bette is clearly hot. (Cartoon collies might not be your thing, so trust me that she's the animal equivalent of a babe.)

The role of a comic teacher is key to adding a new dynamic to a strip. In Calvin and Hobbes and Ozy & Millie, the teacher is an exasperated educator at the mercy of the precocious characters - with only the power of grading and threat of detention to protect them. In Peanuts and Fox Trot, different instructors had different personalities. Fox Trot's professors were mostly of the sarcastic variety (with their own subtleties), but Bill Amend did make a choice once to shake things up. Precocious Jason Fox loved exasperating his teacher with his irritating genius, but when she retired his life was thrown into chaos. The new teacher, Miss O'Malley (I think) was young and on the ball. Jason at one point cried out in horror, "She's challenging me!" Miss O'Malley could get thrown off by Jason's excesses, of course, but I really liked the idea of someone in authority who could put him in his place. With Peanuts, while educators eventually warped into trombones vexed by Peppermint Patty, it should be noted that earlier instructors (around the 60's strips - which is as far as the published archives currently go) were very human. Charlie Brown, Linus and company watched them fall in love, get heartbroken, get married, crack up, learn life lessons, leave and return. I enjoy the idea of such rich characters existing purely off-panel. (See: every verbose post about my minor characters who won't appear for years or ever.) My own Monster is very much inspired by Miss O'Malley and those of the early Peanuts universe.

Bette has long since learned that the best she can do is let the kids choose their own directions and try to nudge them towards the right path. While she does remarkably well in keeping her class in a productive, controlled-chaos state, it's only natural that she can be exasperated at times. At least she's been teaching this group long enough to know how they tick; she knows when to step in and disarm them and when to step aside at let the inevitable explosions happen.

She's also single, fellas! At 29, Bette has the fear of old in her. With her private life, she alternates between convincing herself she's still a young soul and freaking out about becoming a full adult (getting married, owning a house, having kids) before it's too late. While I am not a furry pin-up girl, I *am* 28-going-on-ancient and hopelessly behind in such growing up things. Bette is my outlet for my own frustrations with aging.

Now, this usually doesn't come out in a classroom setting. When a teacher lets students humanize them or look at them as friends, the balance of authority becomes skewed in a way Ms. Monster can't afford, considering this batch of crazies! The way the human side of Bette emerges comes from her friendship with another couple that's going into maturity kicking and screaming: Gene and Sky Et. Despite them having a huge family, they are only 33 and 29, respectively. The Bette-Et combo allows each side to see each side of responsibility, and also provides the enabling element to run away from responsibility on occasion. (Alcohol *is* a factor.) If they aren't careful, Tiffany is going to have a *lot* of blackmail material...

Oh, Gene and Sky, you two are going to ensure my strip will never go into mainstream publication with your naughty antics, aren't you?